Dissidia Calamitas Infinita NT/Solemnity of Fayruz
The Solemnity of Fayruz is a Shard in Dissidia Calamitas Infinita NT. It encompasses the eponymous moon of The Distance Within Us, from the edge of its gravitational well to the depths of its core. From Sundry, the Shard is accessible where the Domains of Lotan and Jeff intersect, suspended above the Lidosian River as it widens to form a small lake before resuming its sinuous course. On the Cocytus side, the Domain's final glacier curves claw-like, tapering to a point about forty meters above the water's edge. On the Gardens side of the lake, a chimeric obelisk of foliage and metal forms a similar shape, angled towards the glacier. Stepping off the edge of either of these structures causes one to enter the Solemnity at a different point. Shard Overview Fayruz is an aquamarine moon completely glassed over with what appear to be tranquil clouds, offering no hint of its surface to viewers from above. Those who enter the Shard from Sundry arrive in the moon's exosphere upon one of two spacecraft. These craft drift aimlessly in Fayruz's orbit, remaining within three hundred meters of each other. Warriors do not experience breathlessness as they would in a standard vacuum of space, and the rules of gravity are fickle. It is possible to drift between the various objects suspended in space, which includes a sparse field of debris scattered between the spacecraft. The Serenahd *Theme: Forgotten Moon Entering the Solemnity from Cocytus deposits a warrior on the Serenahd, the smaller ship of the pair. The craft is a near-uniform jet black, its hull cracked in places that expose naked steel beneath. The interior of the ship is shrouded in darkness, lit in scattered patches by patterns of golden wire-light running along the walls. Most of the wiring is concentrated in two areas: the bridge, where the ship's defunct navigation and controls lie, and a small chamber beyond the poorly lit engine room. This chamber contains a single egg-shaped pod and three hollows where similar pods could ostensibly fit. The Caesura *Theme: Cygnus Entering the Solemnity from the Lidosian Gardens deposits a warrior on the Caesura, which drifts closer to Fayruz's surface compared to the Serenahd. The condition of the Caesura is relatively pristine compared to its counterpart. The craft gives the impression of having housed a full crew numbering almost one hundred, with living quarters, laboratories, and a bridge and engine room of larger size than the Serenahd. A huge disc-like structure, the Mira, nestles perfectly in the underbelly of the Caesura, appearing to be a distinct, detachable craft. Access to this structure is normally locked by a series of gates at several points around its circumference. Fayruz Moonside Boss Battle A final fight against Caesura, Solace, and Sabik is available towards the end of the storyline to any character not originating from The Distance Within Us. The three characters are found suspended in the Sundry airspace above the River Lidosian's lake, just outside the entrance to the Shard. A heavy mist permeates the area, blanketing the initially still constructs. As the mist shifts and solidifies, the player character is able to climb deceptive arcs of data to speak with the three Distance characters. Depending on the perspective character, special circumstances and dialogue may trigger as the mist swells, pulling all present into the Shard and initiating the fight. Concord= |-| Julian= |-| Ruger= |-| The battle operates on a strict script, always shifting phases at the same point in time. It runs synchronously with the theme Reversus. For optimal flavor, the author recommends opening this theme in another window and split-screening between the video and this page. Please watch/listen while reading the script in pace with the timestamps. Summoning is disabled to preserve the timing. Caesura, Solace, and Sabik appear at different intervals throughout the boss battle in targetable or untargetable forms. They are not on the same "team" and as such can damage each other. There are points during the fight where they will specifically target each other and points where they will work in tandem against the player character. Certain parameters must be met to progress in the fight, the final of which is the depletion of Caesura's HP, which begins at 9000. While Solace and Sabik present their own thresholds, the player's main focus throughout combat is to avoid enemy attacks and seize opportunities to strike Caesura when possible. Of note, take care to distinguish Caesura the character and the italicized Caesura the ship. ;Pre-battle: The mist clears, revealing the perspective character and Sabik facing each other within the narrow lower chamber of the Serenahd. The low-ceilinged chamber is initially filled with four escape pods, arranged like sentries before a hull-wide window. Sabik begins the fight with its back to the window. The turquoise clouds of Fayruz dominate the view, giving off the illusion that one could reach through the window and touch the moon. The larger ship, the Caesura, is discernible a very close distance away, at a slightly higher orbit. ;0:00: Sabik begins the fight with full Alhilal stacks, and will dodge, jump, and attack capriciously about the stage for this phase. Sabik's speed makes it a difficult target to hit, so evading and landing a few Brave attacks is the player's most realistic option. At 37 seconds into the fight, Sabik breaks out of any attack and launches into the air, preparing to cast Serenahd by telepathically ripping away an interior chunk of the spacecraft's ceiling. ;0:45: The Serenahd attack lands; the ship Serenahd begins to wobble dangerously in response. Sabik remains in the air as three of the escape pods dislodge and disappear beneath the moon's surface. In response, the construct casts ESCAPE_POD.EXE three times in rapid succession, turning the chamber into a sort of pinball hell. The fourth pod remains static. ;0:53: Sabik withdraws into the area exposed by the removed ceiling, and the gold-wire lights along the walls begin to pulse more urgently. The arena expands to include two rooms on the upper floor: the constrictive bridge and a larger room immediately above the chamber, filled with screaming engines bubbling with golden fluid. Caesura appears in this room, working in tandem with Sabik to launch several projectiles at the player character. Its HP cannot be reduced below 4000 until further noted. The goal in this phase is to cause the destruction of as many engines as possible via any sort of attack, from friend or foe. Destroying 9 or more engines allows the fight to progress; destroying 15 or more inflicts a debuff on Sabik when it appears in a future phase. Failing this causes a wipe to an unavoidable HEART. ;1:41: If the parameters from the previous phase have been met, Sabik shrieks in pain and begins casting Jumada and Fatima repeatedly with no particular target, striking Caesura several times. The phase ends with the hull of the bridge blasted open by Sabik's attacks, casting all three combatants into the void of space towards the Caesura. ;2:00: Combat is paused; Sabik disintegrates almost immediately upon exit from the Serenahd. Caesura dissolves more slowly, fragmenting into chips of blue data that envelop the player character. ;2:10: The player reappears in the disc-like structure (the Mira) at the base of the Caesura. The interior of the disc is huge and amphitheater-like, with a glass dome forming the ceiling. Three terraces of quonset hut-like structures lie on one side, and a mass of processors surrounding a single quonset hut lie on the other. Solace appears at the single, isolated hut, and battle resumes. Tendrils of green data grow along the glass ceiling as the phase progresses, stretching towards the single hut. Solace fights normally during this time, which the exception of automatically spawning a Prisoner of Conscience trap every 5 seconds at a random point within the disc. To progress to the next phase, Solace must take at least 1000 HP damage, or it will end the fight with an unavoidable Patience. ;2:53: Caesura reappears within the disc at the direct opposite point of Solace's position and begins to swiftly execute Ukande, Hiraite, and Fusaide twice over, targeting both Solace and the player. Solace, for its part, will alternate lobbing Skandha and Dukkha at the player while focusing the remainder of its attacks on Caesura. The impact of the attacks causes the Mira to spin wildly as it detaches from the Caesura. Solace ends the phase with a greatly enhanced Skandha cast that drags the player and Caesura through a gate and out of the disc. If Solace's Brave is greater than 3000 at this point, the Skandha cast will instead cause the entire fabric of the Mira to collapse within itself, causing a Game Over. If Solace's Brave was less than 1000 at this point, it will be inflicted with a debuff in a future phase. ;3:37: Combat pauses once more as the player and Caesura are ejected into space. The Mira has broken off from the Caesura and distanced itself slightly from its mothership, remaining in stationary orbit suspended above Fayruz. ;3:47: The Caesura itself begins to plummet gracefully towards the moon. Caesura once more dissolves into blue data and teleports itself and the player to the outside surface of its eponymous ship. The Mira remains at a lengthy distance away, but close enough such that an untargetable Solace, visible above it, is able to reach the Caesura with its attacks. The construct Caesura plays defensively during this phase. ;4:09: The Caesura falls past the wreckage of the Serenahd. Sabik reappears above it in a wretched state, joining Solace in sending a stream of missiles at the gently descending Caesura. Caesura itself ceases to attack here, focusing only on dodging the onslaught of attacks from the other Distance characters''. If the player is able to dodge the crossfire from the Mira and Serenahd, this is an excellent opportunity to land attacks on Caesura. ;4:30: The Caesura seamlessly enters the atmosphere of Fayruz, leaving the Mira, Serenahd, and their operators behind. Battle pauses as the ship is consumed by blankets of indigo mist. Caesura joins with it, disappearing for a short time. The consistency of the atmosphere here is a disconcerting, darkened union of cloud and sea. ;4:48: The Caesura continues sinking, remaining relatively upright, and perspective is forcibly shifted to a slight angle above the top of the ship. Two holographic, untargetable shades of Caesura manifest in the waters around the constrictive arena comprised of the upper surface of the still-falling Caesura. Another bullet hell phase begins in which the Caesuras will gradually spawn more chrysanthemum-shaped Echo Chamber prisms across the arena, greatly increasing the speed of missiles that pass through them. From this point on, the arena is locked to an elongated chevron-shaped section on the Caesura's upper surface. Enemies on the field cannot be damaged by any attacks other that the player's own, and Caesura's HP may now be reduced to a minimum of 1000. ;5:28: One shade of Caesura disappears, and the real construct appears in the arena, resuming action as a normal combatant. The waters around the falling ship start to appear illuminated by a source of light below the sinking craft. ;5:49: The Caesura passes the core of Fayruz, which shines like a blinding white star in the midst of the oceanic abyss. The waters around the core seem to flow more urgently, weaving into a vaporous form that distorts its light. As the ship draws level with the core, it rotates along with camera perspective to appear to be moving sideways, as if orbiting a sun. An untargetable holograph of Solace appears at the perimeter of the arena, contributing frequent Second Sun casts to the existing Caesura hologram's attacks. If Solace was brought to less than 1000 Brave in a previous phase, it is inflicted with the Singularity debuff. This causes the holograph to phase into the real Solace, whose Second Sun attacks are fired much less frequently, as it turns, transfixed, to regard the shining core. Achieving this allows the player more windows to land attacks on Caesura. ;6:12: The core recedes as the Caesura begins to ascend through the cloudsea. Perspective shifts again to a slight angle above the craft As the water dims, a Sabik holograph joins the existing facsimiles, teleporting erratically around the edges of the arena, laughing indulgently, and leaning in to attempt to catch the player in its WAFFLE_IRON.EXE attack. If 15 or more engines were destroyed in a previous phase, the holograph phases into the real Sabik, who is inflicted with the Nadir debuff. This causes it, for once, to remain silent. Sabik will remain stationary in midair at the center of the arena, only attacking should the player draw near it. ;6:35: The waters reach their darkest point, identical to when the Caesura first plummeted into Fayruz. Caesura calls the holograms to its side, then sequentially deletes them, causing intricate patterns of Blue Flame to appear in a final series of bullet hells. If both Solace and Sabik materialized from their holograms, the three constructs will cast, in sequence, Ultramarine, Patience, HEART, and finally all three at once, before Solace and Sabik dissolve back into holographical wisps. In either case, following the final attack, Caesura will pause, vulnerable, staring up at the sudden light breaking through the water's surface above. ;6:55: Caesura's HP can now be reduced to 0 - the player has five seconds to achieve this as the spacecraft breaks through the water on the other side of the moon. ;7:00: Upon successful HP attack, the player surfaces above the ocean, leaving Caesura behind. Caesura stretches a hand out towards the player before disappearing back into the gloom of Fayruz, rooted to its craft. The player realizes they can stand in the now-shallow waters for a moment before the scene fades to white. (Failure to land an HP attack results in the robot dragging the player down into the depths, causing a Game Over.) ;7:28: The player appears back in Sundry, the mist gradually clearing. Depending on the perspective character, there will be a scene involving the Distance characters before they all fade away in a tricolor haze of data. Concord= |-| Julian= |-| Ruger= Ruger reappears in Sundry, keeping his blade at the ready. The swirling mist above the Lidosian presses all around him for a moment, then begins to recede. At first, he cannot locate any of the constructs until Sabik's voice echoes out of the gloom. ;Sabik: S+ JOB ￤ It's over ;Ruger: I'll believe it when I see it. ;Sabik: You'll see soon enough ￤ ANYTHING FOR OUR BEST FRIEND ;Ruger: If you thought I was going to hold back because of that... A part in the fog above Ruger reveals the disintegrating forms of the constructs. Caesura and Solace have nearly completely evaporated, but Sabik's seems to be trembling in place, every molecule vibrating. ;Ruger: Look, I don't know what you punks were trying to pull with that summon. ;Sabik: To be honest ￤ NEITHER DO WE ;Ruger: You're joking, right? ;Sabik: JOKE? US? YOU MUST HAVE THE WRONG DYSFUNCTIONAL AIRCRAFT ￤ The other two knew more. They always knew more... Nothing remains of the other two but traces of indigo and emerald data wisps. The artificial platforms begin to collapse in a vivid rain, and Ruger hops back towards the safe, Sundrian ground, away from Sabik. ;Sabik: Leaving already? ￤ IT'S ALRIGHT. I DON'T HATE YOU. ￤ At least we made some memories here. ￤ MAYBE WE'LL GET TO KEEP THEM ￤ Thanks for being the only one to... to... ￤ WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? TEA LADY WAS A BLAST. ;Ruger: *sigh* It's better this way. For you to go back to where you came from. ;Sabik: AND YOU COULD SAY THE SAME? ;Ruger: ... ;Sabik: Perhaps, one day, I could. The chimeric, golden construct has almost completely dissolved away. A faintly human afterimage appears in front of it - to Ruger, the indistinct shape seems to have a similar figure as his own. Unlike the spectre that stepped forth from White Bird, this image lacks defining characteristics, its surface a liquid blur. The sound that emanates from it is quieter, a shade less robotic than before. ;Sabik: Ruger? ;Ruger: Y-yeah? ;Sabik: Oh. I was just thinking, if I said your name, maybe you would say mine. ;Ruger: ...Sabik? The bands of mist surrounding the area have almost completely evaporated, a final sheen of droplets coalescing on the phantasm's outline. ;Sabik: No, my name. My name. ;Ruger: Sorry. It's either Sabik or Waffle Warship to me. But I mean, you could always pick another name and go with it - Ruger is interrupted by the sound of the least terrifying laughter from Sabik he has ever heard. It could almost be called warm. ;Sabik: Waffle Warship? Aish. Close enough. Better than a forgotten name, or a forgotten moon. ;Ruger: Well, if it's good enough for you. So, "Sabik" is - ;Sabik: I've learned how do something well in this life that Sabik never did. In part thanks to you. ;Ruger: What's that? The last beads of condensation begin to rise into the air, shattering the human outline. Ruger takes a step back onto the rocky precipice, the haze all but extinguished. ;Sabik: Die. Ruger stands alone above the Lidosian. He looks upwards, where the vapor has risen somewhere beyond the edge of the moonless Sundrian sky. |-| Category: Locations